Minutes
chapter 11
Akane's smile amongst the cherry blossoms.

It had been one hell of a week. The Tendo/Saotome household was busy with school, challenges and the other chaos that happens to follow them. It looked as though they would never see the cherry blossoms in bloom before the season was over but finally a date was set! Finally a family picnic they were all waiting for!

Ranma sighed out of aggravation as he looked down at his foot. A cast encased it with a variety of signatures on it. Never had he been in a cast! This was an embarrassment for a Saotome! So embarrassing Ranma couldn't make himself go to the picnic.

If only Ryoga hadn't caught him by surprise... Of course he won the battle, fighting through the pain as he sent that idiot flying. And yet Ryoga still came to the hospital to apologise. Ranma always saw him as a friend but their rivalry always clouded over that fact.

"Stupid pig." Ranma mumbled as he looked out the window, all thought of their possible friendship crushed by his pride. He will pound the stuffing out of him and THEN he will pay. Ranma began to laugh in a low malevolence chuckle; one would even swear they could see fire around him, burning in an evil darkness...

A creak of the floor in the hall way caught Ranma's attention, instantly stopping the laughing whilst the fire and darkness dispersed instantly. He peered over his shoulder cautiously. All the Tendo's and his own parents were at the picnic. Shampoo was working today as was Ukyo and even Ryoga wouldn't dare go after an injured person; so who could be in the house?

Ranma refused to hop around on crutches so he cringed through the pain as he did his best to walk to the door. Nothing. There was nothing there but silence. He sighed and went back to the window, leaning on the window seel and watching the wind blow the tree's branches.

He was mad at Ryoga but not only because of the foot. Because of what he was missing out on. He grew up with his father training him 24/7 so he never got to picnic under the cherry blossoms with his parents like other kids. This was something he always secretly dreamed of, and yet he would never dare speak it...

...Just like he would never admit that he could not wait to see Akane in her Yukata, smiling as the warm breeze blew cherry blossoms around them. But now his child hood dream and his yearning for that vision would not be realised till next year.

There it was again! He was positive he heard a creak! He definitely did and he definitely knew someone was sneaking through the house! They were trying far too hard to remain silence in order to be a friend.

Once again Ranma made his way to the door; despite the cast he was silent, using every ounce of his martial arts skills. Looking out down the hall way he saw a trail of cherry blossoms scattered across the wooden floor.

Ranma's eyes narrowed questionably as he decided to follow the small pink blossoms. He could feel the flowers stick to his bare feet as he silently made his way to the stairs. The atmosphere became heavy as he strained his hearing and his eyes darted over the open area.

He put his back to the wall and slowly glanced around the corner. He saw a shadow suddenly disappear, so quick he nearly questioned himself whether or not he actually saw it. He looked down the stairs and saw yet more cherry blossoms leading the way down the stairs and into the dining room.

Ranma continued forward, slowly, silently, painfully. His foot throbbed and his heart pounded but he was almost excited. This was a great distraction from his anger, plots of revenge, sadness and boredom. He always enjoyed a good fight and was confident he would succeed even with a broken leg.

He was at the dining room now, looking around the corner. The blossoms lead to the closed door that opened onto the back veranda. Now he had them!

"GOTCHA!" He cried out as he threw open the doors, a smile of excitement and eyes fierce, ready for battle were set on his face...

...But they disappeared with the sudden warm wind that blew as he watched cherry blossoms float past him. His breath was taken away as he looked at the small flowers blowing in the wind, at the picnic set out on the veranda and the small cherry blossom branch that was tied to the post near the picnic blanket.

In a daze he slowly looked over to where the cherry blossoms where coming from and saw a smiling Akane holding a large basket of cherry blossoms.

"Hi Ranma!"

"Akane?" Ranma dumbly asked as he just stared. Akane sat the basket down next to the picnic rug and faced Ranma with a beaming smile. She wore a light pink Yukata with white cherry blossom print on it and a slightly darker pink Obi tied around her waist. She had two small dark pink bows in her hair and even wore geta sandals. This wasn't the first time Ranma saw her in a Yukata but it was breath taking nevertheless.

"Well, Mr Saotome mentioned that you guys never got to do this during your training trips and I didn't want you to miss out. When we got to the site I collected as many cherry blossoms as I could and took a branch off the tree. Kasumi and Nodoka helped me and I left everyone behind and travelled back on the train. I know it's a little late but I hope you haven't eaten lunch yet."

Ranma was still in a daze as he felt his heart pound harder. She really did all that work for him? Just so he wouldn't miss out? She called him stubborn and childish for not coming but now she was smiling. It took a few seconds before he could form a coherent word

"No." He answered her question. Akane giggled happily and took his hand, pulling him to the ground so he was sitting on the picnic blanket. Ranma watched as she carefully set out the food Kasumi and Nodoka had both made and poured some tea into two cups. She blew the tea to cool it slightly before passing it to Ranma.

Ranma stared at the cup, still shocked at the whole situation, before looking back at Akane. She smiled warmly as she held the cup in her hands. Slowly Ranma grabbed a handful of blossoms from the large basket and tossed them in the air so they gently blew around Akane.

"Perfect." Ranma smiled back.

"Wha..." Akane was about to ask when she suddenly was interrupted by Ranma's lips gently pressed against her own. He pulled away and smiled, before digging into the food. Akane simply blushed as she stared at her tea.

Their cherry blossom picnic lasted 63 minutes but out of all the cherry blossom picnics through all the years to come, this one would prove to be their favourite.

Authors note: hope you liked this. I was just sitting around when the idea came to me and I thought what a cute thing to do. I actually had a huge toss up over who would have the broken leg and who would set up the picnic. But I thought it was Akane's turn to be sweet to Ranma. Anyways thank you for reading! I hope you are enjoying the short stories so far and I will do my best to make you all happy reading them! So please, feel free to point out my flaws so I can improve and give suggestions!

Thank you once again! :D